Health Information and Disease Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

Osteonecrosis, aka avascular necrosis, is a bone condition in which part of your bone dies due to the lack of blood. Other terms used in reference to this bone death condition are aseptic necrosis or ischemic bone necrosis.

As osteonecrosis worsens, it can cause your bones to break and ultimately collapse. The location along a bone most often experiencing death is the end. And avascular necrosis can happen to a single bone or multiple ones.

The hip end of the femur bone is the most common site for osteonecrosis. However, avascular necrosis is known to occur in the upper arm, knee, shoulder, ankle, foot, spine and jaw.

Initially osteonecrosis bone death may not cause any symptoms. As the health condition progresses, you’ll begin to notice joint pain, much like arthritis. Eventually, range of motion may be reduced and resting the joint may not relieve your pain.

Other avascular necrosis associated symptoms will depend on where and which bone is dying. An assortment of symptoms include:

Ofttimes, osteonecrosis resting joint pain develops following some type of severe bone trauma, like after a fracture or dislocation. Yet, there are other associated causes and risks for this type of bone death, such as